


kokoro's state of the world

by phanstarlight



Series: home. [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Danganronpa Another 2 ~The Moon of Hope and Sun of Despair~
Genre: Alternate Universe, Everyone Needs A Hug, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kokoro and Mikako are sisters, Kokoro is bad at people, Mental Health Issues, Past Child Abuse, past bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 01:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20806073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phanstarlight/pseuds/phanstarlight
Summary: fact 1. kokoro didn't like being the ultimate psychologist that much.fact 2. kokoro liked class 79, and the people in it.fact 3. kokoro's resented that her talent and social skills did not work together. [KEY.]➵ the story of kokoro mitsume, and her recent observations with class 79.





	kokoro's state of the world

**Author's Note:**

> this fic takes place in between chapters 9 and 10 of [void of thought](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19153144/chapters/45522196)
> 
> tw ; implied child abuse and mental health issues

_being gifted should be a blessing, not a curse. _

“have fun…at school today.” with a friendly nod, the girl’s sister closed their front door. 

kokoro mitsume didn’t consider herself much of an ultimate. her entire life, she’d been ‘gifted’ and hadn’t officially known it until mikako told her...not that it changed anything. understanding people wasn’t a hard thing to do by anyone’s standards. people react in set ways and patterns you come to read and acknowledge rather quickly if you’ve seen it enough times. from there, predicting what people would do or deciphering their life was easy to do. 

yet, at 10 years old, kokoro was told that this wasn’t an easy or normal thing to do. she was gifted with a talent much like her own. 

people envied her talent. knowing virtually everything about a person after spending a few moments with them? that had to be great. she’d been interviewed by a lot of specialists and others in the psychological industry, and they all spoke highly of her talent and skills. by 11 years old, she was somewhat of a novelty to others in the field. they were amazed at her age. they were jealous of her lack of needed effort. someone like her ought to be grateful, they told her directly. kokoro had yet to feel the same.

she reached kibougamine at 8:04 on the dot. 

class 79 was alright. in a class of other ultimates, kokoro didn’t make effort to stand out. her classmates were alright people and treated her like they would with anyone; she liked that. she liked them.

“hey kokoro!” the first person to greet her was the ultimate actress, “how was your night?” emma magorobi was a good person, and perhaps the one closest to her in class 79. she was overly positive and cheerful the majority of the time and made extensive effort to make sure nobody felt left out, including the psychologist. 

the brunette didn’t change expressions, “it was fine. how was your night?” 

“it was good!” emma smiled, and that was when kokoro’s day really began. her mind immediately zoned in on emma’s unnaturally high laughter, and the way she refused to meet the psychologist’s gaze as she answered. kokoro spent a lot of time with the actress, but it didn’t take having her ultimate talent to see through emma’s franticness and her lie. 

she had another nightmare.

emma magorobi frequently suffered from night terrors as a result of trauma and abuse, inflicted on her from her biological family. she’d seen her behavior in a lot of the patients she studied so seeing it from emma didn’t surprise her. the actress was in a safe place now, she knew, but was still dealing with the past. she had nightmare-filled nights more often than not.

“good to hear.” was all she responded back with, following the actress to their seats. she watched emma pull down her blazer sleeves as they walked before pulling kokoro into conversation with sora and yoruko.

ah, _this_ is what she hated about her ultimate talent. 

she took note of everyone’s habits and behaviors, unconsciously piecing together their life story as they spoke to her. it wasn’t a pleasant talent to have, especially whilst growing up. people don’t like being analysed. she couldn’t help it. cue the shouts and scrutiny.

childhood was a very lonely time.

after a while, kokoro tuned out of emma’s conversation with the other girls; it didn’t interest her at all. she wasn’t going to try and get into it. instead, she turned around to watch another classmate make their way into class: nikkei yomiuri, ultimate journalist.

the entire walk from the door over to setsuka’s seat, the boy didn’t look up from the floor. the journalist’s hair was unkept and had been haphazardly combed through; it didn’t make him look any better. one of his eyes was still covered by his bangs but kokoro noted how the eye she could see was full of exhaustion and a lack of sleep. that was evident in his walk and actions, though the psychologist could practically feel the sourness in his demeanour; it was one much different from his typical snarkiness or defensive grumpy nature.

“hey nik.” setsuka started, her voice uncharacteristically low, “you alright?” 

in the corner of her eye, she watched the journalist slump in his own seat with a noncommittal shrug. setsuka’s response was a reassuring, “that’s ok. i’m proud of ya for coming into school today.”

setsuka chiebukuro and nikkei yomiuri’s relationship was one that took her longer than usual to understand. the former was a comforting presence, and arguably the most patient person kokoro had ever come across. the latter, on the other hand, tended to be confrontational and judgemental at times.

together, though, the two of them were like _this._

nikkei yomiuri had his own set of issues. his defensiveness and judgemental attitude didn’t come from a malicious place, but it was what he presented to most people. there were moments in which he snapped at their classmates for no apparent reason and would thus be criticised (usually, by yoruko) though...nikkei clearly didn’t understand his own actions either. at times like that, the journalist appeared unfocused and stuck in his own thoughts. he would bury his head onto his desk for a while and then gradually return to his typical talkative self.

whilst kokoro was fairly certain she knew why the ultimate journalist’s mood changed so much, she didn’t care to bring it up to anyone. the very reason for their close relationship was to do with setsuka knowing very well what nikkei was going through, and her refusal to him closing up. it was a nice sentiment. setsuka was a caring person by nature. saying that, it did feel unsettling to watch this all unfold - she wasn't apart of /this/, yet she inadvertently was whether she liked it or not. nikkei and setsuka didn't know that.

the psychologist glanced at the classroom clock - 8:10. she turned her attention to the door again.

as if on cue, the door swung open and _he_ made his way in.

he always arrived at class this early, though usually in a much more flamboyant fashion. he didn’t greet anyone as he sat down in his seat, attention entirely on the phone clasped in his hands; kokoro watched as he narrowly avoided bumping into desks as a result. honestly, he was clearly not quite ‘here’ or able to engage with anyone else in the room though she doubted he cared about that at the moment. he was entirely absorbed in his phone.

mikado sannoji, ultimate magician...he was kokoro’s person of interest at the moment.

the blonde was a mysterious person to begin with - he was one of the first people she’d been unable to read immediately, alongside syobai. mikado spoke with an air of confidence and elegance, often making a spectacle of his ultimate talent whenever he could. his ability to garner attention and intrigue from a crowd was something kokoro found admirable, albeit she would never want to be in his place. 

recently however, something had changed in the magician. class 79 had just began planning their festival stall together and, as the student body leader, mikado was playing a big role in coming up with and putting forth their ideas. mikado was still as theatrical as ever in his actions and words, so much so that nobody else had noticed what she had. all of _this_ he was putting on was an act - a very elaborate and almost dismissable one at that. from the start, it never slipped kokoro’s notice that the magician was getting much sloppier in his magic tricks; it was clear he wasn’t all too into it like he used to be. 

kokoro had taken to observing the magician closely since his change in personality had come to her attention. the reasons for his sudden shift was still something she was trying to conclude although the initial class meeting did give her a vague idea.

emma had slammed the table to get everyone's attention that day. iroha yelped, although the psychologist knew that was her usual reaction to sudden loud noise - the painter lived a pretty isolated life, as far as she could tell. her other classmates all seemed equally stunned but there was nothing particularly notable about their reactions.

mikado had flinched. 

the action itself wasn't what caught her eye, but the level of fear and anxiety that crossed the magician's face in that brief moment. the reaction left as quickly as it appeared but mikado's demeanor for the rest of the meeting seemed restrained in some way. 

there were multiple reasons for someone to flinch in such a way, from it being a simple reflex reaction to reasons more serious. when it came to her attention, kokoro couldn’t be sure of what one it was.

cut to now, the answer was becoming apparent to her quicker than she expected. 

mikado seemed withdrawn from their classmates. he joined in with planning their festival stall but it was clearly much more of an _obligation_ then a task he actually wanted part of. both in person and over text, the magician wasn’t as into the planning as he was originally, though nobody else mentioned it - perhaps it wasn’t as obvious to everyone else. what _was_ painfully obvious though, she realised, was the poor state of the boy’s hands; faint, but still noticable, were the bruises on his knuckles. mikado wasn’t the type to get into physical altercations. the bruises were new, but the magician clearly hadn’t done much damage on whoever or whatever he’d punched. she wondered how much damage it’d done on him in return.

her eyes continued to wander until they reached mikado’s signature cape. his insistence and fight with the school to wear that cape intrigued her greatly; not a day went by when he went without it. the cape was still very much there, but that wasn’t what caught her interest - it seemed to be tied up in a different fashion than usual today. mikado had done it up higher. it covered a lot more of his neck. that was likely his intention. with the notes she made in her head, the implications of this were clear as day.

“-think...kokoro?” the psychologist turned her attention back to the group, “are you alright?” sora spoke with concern, frowning at the brunette slightly. 

“i’m alright. just thinking.” the response was curt, but sora accepted it. kokoro shifted her concentration to girls’ conversation again, though none of it interested her much; she supposed it was just nice to have these people socialise with her. minutes passed and the rest of class 79 filed in, changing the pace of conversation and the volume of the classroom. the bell went. class would be starting any moment now.

as they moved to sit down, yoruko tapped kokoro on the shoulder, “hey, are you sure you’re okay? not to intrude but you don’t have your tablet on you today…” 

in a world where people were often too much for her to bear, that tablet was kokoro’s prized possession. it helped her analyse others’ moods and gage their emotions better than she could do alone, but most of the time, it acted as a comfort item. a lot of students she came across gave her uncomfortable looks whenever they spotted her with it. it didn’t bother kokoro that much. they were the same sort of looks her elementary school classmates used to give her. she mentioned it to mikako. her sister advised her not to bring it in anymore. thus, here she was without it.

“yes, i’m alright.” she responded, though yoruko was clearly dissatisfied, “...thank you for caring.” the hostess went red at that, stuttering out a “i-it’s fine!” before shuffling along to her own seat. yoruko kabuya was also a good person. 

taking her seat, kokoro’s attention wandered back to the ultimate magician sitting in front of her. the ultimate psychologist’s intuition and knowledge was rarely off, but approaching mikado about her observations...she didn’t know how to do that. would he want someone to notice? would he want /her/ to point out the obvious? she did that with emma before. it didn’t end well. the actress was kind enough to accept her apology. would mikado react in a similar way? she hadn’t ever seen him angry or upset before. the ultimate side of her wanted to. the logical side of her did not. 

kokoro wanted her tablet. 

their teacher walked in and class went silent. she didn’t pay lessons much mind usually but right now, it was a welcomed escape from her own mind. thoughts about her classmates, her patients, her sister - she blocked them out as best she could. glancing up at mikado again, she tried not to overthink it. 

for now, she would sit back and observe the magician until she knew what to do. 

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this to give a bit of explanation to what's going down currently in void of thought - it'd be weird to think so much was going on with mikado and not have kokoro (being, well, kokoro) notice it, but she does. she just lacks the knowledge and social skills to actually approach him about it which is sorta significant. she isn't an emotionless character in the actual game and i wanted to show that here too - she understands people psychologically but not socially...yknow? 
> 
> cya


End file.
